Tuesday 4 July 2017

Old friends, new old friends, sunshine and relaxation

What a fantastic few days!!

It all started with a day of pampering at Beauty Boutique in Wigston, a pedicure and massage, toe and finger nails manicured and painted, and lashes lifted and tinted (will save the need for mascara in hospital!). I was out just in time to get to Base hairdressers for a trim and highlights to brighten me up for the summer. Bliss!

I packed the following morning and went on my way to Teddington for the weekend to see a friend I haven't seen for a couple of years, leaving early to miss the traffic. It was a lovely day and it was great to park up and wander down to the river. It always has a real holiday feel to me, especially when the sun is shining 🌞

It turns out that another old friend lives there too, who I haven't seen for (cough, cough) years. We agreed to meet at Tide End Cottage for a drink and, although I felt a bit nervous meeting someone from so long ago, it was actually really easy and the time flew by. Well, it did for me anyway! For all I know I could have been chatting far too much and bored them to tears! I hope not though!

As they needed to leave, my other friends arrived and we made our way to the Fallow Deer for cocktails and then almost next door for an Italian (food, not person...). Overall, a very enjoyable day with delicious food, refreshing drinks and, most importantly, great company!

I awoke Saturday morning to another lovely day which we decided to start off with a game of crazy golf, much to my friend's partner's horror! Not just crazy golf though, Pirate crazy golf! It was really busy, and yes mainly with kids, but did we care??! Well, two of us didn't! 😂 We had to pull ourselves across the water in rafts, play inside a pirate ship in the dark, it was fun!! There was another small group of adults only behind us who were taking it all much too seriously! I had to bite my tongue to not point out it was a crazy golf course, mainly aimed at kids and not grown men...... We really didn't take it seriously, I mean, my first hit of the ball and it went straight in the water!! You could almost see their agitation growing with each of the 9 attempts it took my to complete hole no. 1!!

We recovered from the effort with some lunch at The Anchor at Wisley, watching the boats go through the lock, going back to the Flying Cloud at Teddington for a cuppa and cake back by the river, again watching all the boats go by as we made several (fairly unsuccessful) attempts at taking a selfie!

Another beautiful evening made our decision to go to a now favourite haunt of mine, Comptoir Libanais, by Kingston Bridge. We managed to upset the waitress by wanting to sit at a different (and nicer) table than the one she initially offered us, leading her to very grumpy and almost throwing chairs about before telling us we'd have to wait while she seated someone else at 'our' table! Ooops! Another waitress then came to seat us, who was very happy and pleasant! We had a lovely meal watching the sun set. Our cocktail reminded me slightly of Benilyn (although you got used to it after a while!) and the 'tea' my friend ordered looked vaguely as though she had been pond dipping, although she quite liked it, until my pond dipping comment at least........

Sunday wasn't meant to be so nice but it was another gorgeous, hot and sunny day! We ambled around a classic car show in Hampton before shopping for picnic bits and making our way to Strawberry Hill House for their fun day and music festival. We went around the house which was like nothing I had ever seen before. Very gothic in style and seemingly completely random! Lots of the windows had original panes of 17th century painted glass from Flanders which were fantastic. We then relaxed in the sunshine with our picnic, listening to the different bands until early evening.

It was a really chilled out weekend and I had such a lovely time, just what I needed before hospital calls!!

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